Receptacle cover



Sept. 9, 1969 a. J. STAPLETON 3,465,872

RECEPTACLE COVER Filed Feb. 28, 1968 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 I I I: A K/ INVENTOR. EDWARD J. STAPLETON BY M {94 i. WW

ATTORNEY Sept. 9, 1969 a. J. sfAPLEToN RECEPTACLE COVER Filed Feb. 28. 1968 2 Sheets-Sheet I 5+ j Fig. 4 48*7 FIG. 3

INVENTOR.

EDWARD J. STAPLETON BY/z 72 United States Patent 3,465,872 RECEPTACLE COVER Edward J. Stapleton, 810 SE. 7th Ave., Pompano Beach, Fla. 33060 Filed Feb. 28, 1968, Ser. No. 709,116 Int. Cl. B6511 51/00 US. Cl. 20615.1 8 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A closure for a container with elongated apertures provided with grippers for holding the broad bristle receiving portion of ordinary paint brushes. Brushes may be inserted into the apertures from the underside of the closure and the grippers will automatically grip the brushes. The closure may then be applied to a container with solvent therein and will suspend the bristles in the solvent. A brush may be removed from the closure without removing the closure from the container by merely pulling the brush out of the aperture.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Various types of brush holders for suspending paint brushes in solvent have been proposed. They have typically been awkward to use and have required too many parts to be manufactured economically. For example, some holders have been provided with rods, springs or other separate pieces fastened to a support and engageable with the narrow handle of a brush to suspend the brush in solvent in a container. Manufacture of such separate pieces and assembly thereof with a support increases manufacturing costs. Also, many known holders have required considerable manipulation of the brushes to engage them with the holder and to remove them from the holder.

SUM-MARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides a closure for a container which has integral grippers for holding brushes. The closure is preferably a generally flat plastic cover having elongated apertures extending through the same, the apertures being of a size to receive the broad bristle receiving portions of ordinary paint brushes. The grippers are molded integrally with the cover about the apertures and are resiliently flexible so that they grip the bristle receiving portions of the brushes when they are inserted in the apertures. The apertures may be of different sizes to receive brushes of difierent standard sizes. When the cover holding brushes is applied to a container, the bristles are suspended in solvent in the cotainer. A brush may be removed from the cover merely by pulling it upward out of the aperture, and the gripper wipes the brush clean as it is removed.

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a receptacle closure of one-piece construction capable of holding brushes with their bristles suspended in solvent in a container.

Another object of the invention is to provide a combination receptacle closure and brush holder which allows brushes to be removed therefrom easily without removing the closure-holder from a container.

A further object of the invention is to provide a receptacle closure in the form of a plastic cover having built-in grippers integral with the cover for holding brushes.

Other objects of this invention will appear in the following description and appended claims, reference being bad to the accompanying drawings forming a part of this specification wherein like reference characters designate corresponding parts in the several views.

3,465,872 Patented Sept. 9, 1969 ON THE DRAWINGS FIGURE 1 is a plan view of a receptacle closure in accordance with one embodiment of the invention;

FIGURE 2 is a sectional view taken along line 22 of FIG. 1 and also showing brushes held in apertures of the closure;

FIGURE 3 is a sectional view of an embodiment similar to that of FIGS. 1 and 2, the closure having a skirt fitting inside a container rather than outside the container as in FIGS. 1 and 2;

FIGURE 4 is a plan view of a receptacle closure forming another embodiment of the invention; and

FIGURE 5 is a sectional view taken along line 55 of FIGURE 4 and also showing a brush held by the closure.

Before explaining the present invention in detail, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited in its application to the details of construction and arrangement of parts illustrated in the accompanying drawings, since the invention is capable of other embodiments and of being practiced or carried out in various ways. A so, it is to be understood that the phraseology or terminology employed herein is for the purpose of description and not of limitation.

AS SHOWN ON THE DRAWINGS Referring first to FIGURES l and 2, a cover 10 is shown which is generally circular in configuration and includes a generally flat web portion 12 and a depending cylindrical skirt portion 14 extending down from the rim of the Web portion 12. Skirt portion 14 is of a size to fit snugy over the mouth 16 of container 18 which is preferably a standard one gallon paint can.

Web portion 12 has a series of integral ribs 20 extending in one direction, and another series of integral ribs 22 extending at right angles to ribs 20. The ribs 20 and 22 serve to stiffen web portion 12, the web portion being relatively thin.

A plurality of elongated generally oval ridges 24, 26, 28, 30 and 32 are formed integrally with web portion 12 and project upwardly from the web portion. These ridges define elongated apertures which extend through web portion 12, but the openings are normally closed by resiliently flexible gripper flaps 34. The gripper flaps 34 are formed integrally with the Web portion 12, and they may be originally molded as separate flaps. Alternatively, the individual flaps may originally be joined together by very thin plastic joints Which will tear easily when a brush is inserted in an aperture. Thus, until an aperture is used, it is covered to prevent solvent evaporation.

The gripper flaps 34 normally extend horizontally and substantially close the apertures within ridges 2432. However, brushes may be inserted handle first from the underside of the cover through the elongated apertures, and the insertion of the brush will bend the resiliently flexible gripper flaps 34 upwardly in the manner shown in FIG- URE 2. The resiliency of flaps 34 causes them to be selfbiased against the brushes 35, 36, 37, 38 and 39 to hold the brushes in place after they have been inserted.

It may be seen that the elongated apertures within ridges 24-32 are dimensioned to snugly receive the broad bristle receiving portions 40 of the ordinary paint brushes 35-39. The apertures may be of different sizes to receive different standard sizes of brushes. The flaps 34 engage brush portions 40 when the brushes are properly inserted in'the apertures of the cover. Brush portions 40 are the widest parts of the brushes, the handles 41 being substantially narrower. There is usually a metal band at portion 40. When the cover 10 is applied to a container 18 in the manner shown in FIG. 2, the bristles 42 are suspended in solvent provided in container 18. The brushes may be stored in this manner for any desired length of time.

When one of the brushes is to be used, the brush is merely pulled upwardly out of the aperture in cover 10 without removing cover 10 from the container 18. Thus, the brushes may be inserted into and removed from the cover 10 with a minimum of manipulation. The flaps 34 will wipe the bristles clean as the brush is withdrawn.

The entire cover or closure 10 may be made of plastic material, and the cover may be a one-piece molded member. Thus, no assembling of parts to form the cover is required.

FIGURE 3 is a fragmentary sectional view of a cover or closure 44 applied to the mouth 46 of a container 48. Cover 44 has a web portion 50 with elongated apertures 52 therein, the apertures being normally covered by resiliently flexible flaps 54 in exactly the same manner as described in connection with FIGURES 1 and 2. Cover 44 differs from cover 10 in that a skirt 56 is provided which fits inside the mouth 46 of container 48, there being a small flange 58 which fits on the top of container mouth 46. The web portion 50 in this embodiment is not provided with ridges 2032, although it would be possible-to do so. Otherwise, cover 44 is identical to cover 10 and serves the same purposes as cover 10.

FIGURES 4 and illustrate another embodiment of the invention. In this embodiment, a plastic cover 60 is provided with a web portion 62 having a grid work of ribs 64 and 68 and elongated generally oval ridges 70, 72, 74, 76 and 78 defining elongated apertures extending through the web portion. In this embodiment, ridges 70-78 extend upward from web portion 62 a substantial distance, and the ridges taper inwardly and upwardly from a wider area at their bases to a smaller area at their top ends. Considering ridge 74 by way of example, its mouth 80 is just slightly smaller than the dimensions of the broad bristle receiving portion 82 of a brush 84 received therein in the manner shown in FIGURE 5. Mouth 80 is sufficiently flexible and resilient to stretch very slightly when brush portion 82 is received therein, and therefore ridge 74 serves as a gripper which holds the brush 84 after it has been inserted therein.

As in the case of the other embodiments, cover 60 having a brush 84 therein may be applied to the mouth of a container 86 to hold the bristles 88 of brush 84 suspended in solvent provided in the container. When brush 84 is to be used, it is simply pulled upwardly out of the aperture within ridge 74 without removing cover 60 from container 86. Obviously, the other ridges 70, 72, 76 and 78 function in the same way as ridge 74. The ridges will wipe the bristles clean as a brush is removed.

Optionally, the apertures defined by ridges 70-78 may originally be covered by thin plastic push-out members 79 so that until an aperture is used it is closed to prevent solvent evaporation.

Thus, a one-piece receptacle closure has been provided which is capable of holding brushes with their bristles suspended in solvent in a container. The closure grips the broadest part of the brush rather than the narrow handle so that the closure can be generally flat, thus resulting in low manufacture costs and savings to the customer. Brushes may be removed from the closure without removing the closure from the container. Brushes may easily be inserted into the apertures in the closure from the underside thereof. The closure has built-in grippers which hold the brushes in a positive manner, but which allow the brushes to be removed easily from the closure. There is no need to provide a special container as the container may be a standard one gallon paint can or other readily available can.

Having thus described my invention, I claim:

1. A closure-holder for a container having a mouth, the closure-holder being adapted to hold paint brushes having bristle-receiving portions which are substantially 4 broader than the handles thereof to suspend the bristles of the brushes in liquid provided in the container, the bristle-receiving portions being the widest parts of said brushes, said closure-holder comprising a planar, continuous Web having a circular peripheral edge in the plane thereof dimensioned to fit with said container to cover the same, said web having a plurality of oval aperturedefining edges centrally and in the plane thereof, each of said aperture-defining edges being long and narrow with the longest dimension thereof being only slightly greater than the widest dimension of one of said paint brushes at said bristle-receiving portion thereof and the narrowest dimension of said aperture-defining edge being only slightly greater than the thickness of the same paint brush at said bristle-receiving portion thereof, said bristledefining edges having resilient, flexible grippers projecting inwardly therefrom to receive and grip said bristlereceiving portions of said brushes, respectively, so that said brushes may be inserted handle-first from the underside of said web through said grippers to engage said grippers with said bristle-receiving portions and removed from said grippers from the top side of said web without removing said closure-holder from said container, and a cylindrical skirt depending from said circular peripheral edge for retaining said web against lateral movement relative to the mouth of said container, said web and said grippers and said skirt being molded as one piece from plastic material, and said closure-holder having no separate pieces associated therewith.

2. The closure-holder as claimed in claim 1 in which said aperture-defining edges are of different sizes to receive, respectively, brushes of different standard sizes.

3. The closure-holder as claimed in claim 1 in which said skirt is dimensioned to fit the outside of said container mouth.

4. The closure-holder as claimed in claim 1 in which said skirt is dimensioned to fit the inside of said container.

5. The closure-holder as claimed in claim 1 in which each of said aperture-defining edges has a plurality of resilient, flexible gripper flaps projecting laterally from both of the longer sides of said edge and meeting at a line which extends lengthwise of said edge, and said gripper flaps being bendable by a brush when inserted into said edge to grip said bristle-receiving portion and permitting removal of said brush without removing said cover-holder from said container.

6. The closure-holder as claimed in claim 5 in which each of said aperture-defining edges has an integral, transversely projecting ridge extending around the same providing reinforcement.

7. The closure-holder as claimed in claim 1 in which said grippers each comprises a continuous ridge extending upwardly from the respective aperture-defining edge and tapering inwardly from the base thereof to a smaller open mouth at the top end thereof, said mouth being slightly smaller than the widest portion of the respective brush so that said mouth can flex to grip the bristlereceiving portion of said brush.

8. The closure-holder as claimed in claim 7 in which said aperture-defining edges are originally closed by push out members which can be removed by application of force thereto.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,703,898 3/ 1955 Kellett 22090 XR FOREIGN PATENTS 755,569 9/1933 France.

JOSEPH R. LECLAIR, Primary Examiner J. M. CASKIE, Assistant Examiner 

